Published 9:28 am, Friday, February 7, 2014

IONIA (AP) — A convicted killer captured in Indiana some 24 hours after making after a daring escape from a Michigan prison came within 20 feet of a guard on a perimeter patrol before fleeing unnoticed, a corrections official said.

Officers in a control center assigned to monitor surveillance video also failed to see Michael David Elliot during Sunday’s escape, The Grand Rapids Press reported Friday, an oversight that allowed him to get off Ionia Correctional Facility property.

Corrections officials expect to wrap up their internal investigation into the escape next week, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan told the newspaper. Michigan’s Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette, R-Midland, meanwhile announced a separate, independent review of what happened.

Marlan said the surveillance video shows Elliot’s escape. According to court records, Elliot began his escape at 6 p.m. Sunday and was out of the facility by 6:53 p.m. Corrections officers noticed Elliot was missing around 9:15 p.m. Sunday during a prisoner count.

“You can clearly see him leaving his housing unit, going to an area that prisoners are not allowed to be in, go down to the fence line and then spend the better part of an hour going through two perimeter fences,” Marlan said.

“Obviously, had that been noticed, he wouldn’t have been able to leave the correctional facility.”

Elliot, 40, was arrested Monday in a stolen vehicle in northwestern Indiana, about 24 hours after fleeing prison. He has refused to waive extradition and is being held in Indiana on a $1 million bond. On Tuesday, he said he made a run for it after 20 years in custody because he “just wanted a second chance.”

The Michigan attorney general’s office will lead what Snyder described as an “exhaustive” assessment of how Elliot broke out of the western Michigan prison.

Snyder said in a statement Friday that he has full confidence in Michigan Department of Corrections Director Dan Heyns’ internal investigation, but that a separate review can only help prevent future escapes.

“This additional step will ... ensure we have the most thorough and comprehensive information possible,” Snyder said.

Schuette will issue a report about his office’s findings. No timeframe was provided.

“We will conduct an aggressive investigation, without fear or favor. ... This will be an exhaustive investigation,” Schuette said in a statement.

The fences are equipped with motion sensors and carry electric current to shock anyone who touches them, but Marlan said Elliot used his hands to loosen and pull back fencing on vehicle gate portions that don’t carry an electric charge. Motion sensors should have triggered an alarm and flashing light in the control center, Marlan said.

Elliot was wearing a white kitchen uniform that may have helped him blend with snow.

Elliot is charged with auto theft in Indiana. He’s also charged with carjacking, kidnapping and escape in Michigan.

Elliot was serving life in prison without parole for fatally shooting four people and burning down their Gladwin County house in 1993 when he was 20 years old. He and his accomplices were trying to steal money from a drug dealer, police said.